Monday, June 13, 2016

Recent research suggests that the college application process itself
prevents access. This paper reports results from a large school-based
experiment in which application assistance is incorporated into the high
school curriculum for all graduating seniors at low-transition schools.
Over three workshops, students were guided to pick programs of interest
that they were eligible for, apply for real, and complete the financial
aid application. The goal was to create a college option for exiting
students to make the transition easier and more salient.

On average, the
program increased application rates from 64 to 78 per cent. College
enrollment increased the following school year by 5.2 percentage points
with virtually all of this increase in two-year community college
programs. The greatest impact was for students who were not taking any
university-track courses in high school: the application rate for these
students increased by 24 percentage points with a nine per cent increase
in two-year college enrollment.

A second experiment was conducted two
years later to explore several variations of the program. Offering
personal assistance without waiving application fees had a negligible or
even negative impact on applications and enrollment. Using laptops in
homeroom classrooms instead of sending students to computer labs while
combining the initial 2 workshops into one full-morning session
increased application rates. However, subsequent enrollment effects were
negligible. There is some evidence consistent with the possibility
that decreased guidance in choosing eligible programs was responsible
for the second-experiment's decline in enrollment impacts.